utrim

[bluelu]

How in the hell can they take away 8 jobs per shift for a total of 16 jobs and then add 1 boss per shift. Fuck Ford and Fuck the UAW. They said they want to get rid of 219 UAW jobs plant wide this year. Thank you union for nothing. You sux

[ScottR@KTP]

I had heard the idea of getting rid of @ 200 jobs plant wide, pretty sick. But you have to look at the timing...as soon as the people go back to LAP, they hope to bring in no one new...attempt to absorb all the losses. It sucks, but they have to attempt to do it...doesn't mean they have to win. As for adding a boss...remember, if it doesn't make sense, they will do it.
Now go make some snow angels and take a deep breath.

[richatktp1]

The bosses get bonuses for cutting out jobs. Nothing new at HELL/FORD

[buckeyeinky]

Blue... what does the union have to do with job cutting ? A committeeman is NOT allowed to tell you not to hold a job. Problem isnt the union problems is people like YOU that use the union as a crutch , because you dont have the BALLS to fight a job. so when the co. adds work you take it like a porn pro ,then run your mouth how bad the union is .the union is your mommy ...or daddy..stand up and start fighting for our jobs and trhen let the union get your money back. if they DONT then you can curse them

[catfish]

buckeye is right we spend way to much time fighting each other when we would should stand together and fighting the company.

[tryingtomakeit]

It would be much easier to fight a job if the 120 day letter was still in effect in this plant. But with rebalances every 6 mos. and no 120 day letter, your odds of fighting a job and winning are next to zero.

[catfish]

ask for the time study you will find they have not done time studies on most the jobs because people are not fighting them

[turbo350]

One of the new bosses isn't from LAP is he? I heard they were going to put them over there until we fire back up.

[kessinger]

Blue they have yet to cut a single job out this year and you are already saying F the UAW? Thanks for helping in the fight. So that you know they have a similar pipe dream of cutting jobs every year, the last two years have been higher than those in the past.

They had this 200 goal last year, do you see 200 extra people standing around? We do have extras due to low AWOL's that we always have at this time of year. They managed to cut jobs ,but no where near their hope of 200.

Don't let them push your buttons. This is the first time I have actualy seen them out telling everyone they can, that this is their goal. THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MINUTE. They are actually walking around telling VAT's they are gonna cut 200 jobs. Why would they do this? Have they ever done it before? Take note it's an election year. Could this be their campaign stratagy? Don't think for a minute Ford doesn't try to get involved in union decisions, or elections? Do you think they are just some bump on a log with the rest of the world turning around them? I know many seem to think we make all the decisions and Ford just says "ok whatever you say." But, that is far far from reality.

4 months out from election time they announce a product at a plant that has a chairman that backed the last concessions, and faces a strong challenger in his election (I don't blame Steve he didn't have much choice). And they start talking about 200 job cuts on the floor of the chairman that didn't support it. Do you think when we told them we weren't supporting the concessions they said" ahh shoot guys, I was hoping you would help us out? Well it was nice to meet ya, God bless" ......................Not hardly.

IF, I say IF they plan to try and piss people off at the union because THEY want to cut jobs, it has obviously worked on one person. Or maybe bluelu is management "going public" announcing his hopes of 200 job cuts.

To back up buck. No union in the land has the right to tell a company how many people they must use to build something. That will never happen. All a union can do is negotiate a fair process to judge work loads and support you to make sure the process is followed.

Catfish is also right, most jobs don't even have studies, if you don't fight it they won't ever even make one. We can' t fight it for you. Its hard to convince a manager your job is too loaded when you have never turned the line off.

The 120 day letter only explains when they can do rebalances. It doesnt help you fight a job at all. The problem with the letter is that it has too many loopholes they can use to bypass it.

[jefflebowski]

Kess, I agree with your post up until you got to the 120 day letter. Yes its the assemblers fight in regards to work added. I have fought element add-ons to my job in my years at Ford...but never past the 120 day official launch date agreed on (published) by both mgmt and union. You never worked at LAP and only know of KTP. I've worked on the line at both. KTP has a much more aggressive mgmt team than I would have ever envisioned even though some at LAP who came from KTP tried to explain it to me. I think part of this is due to no 120 day letter. You have my respect for coming on here and posting but, if the company is trying to add work 120 days past launch, the loophole theory, thats when the bargaining committee should put their weight into the fight. There are PLENTY of health and safety violations to hold over them and use as negotiation. Heath and safety is a walkout issue. I've seen it used in negotiations. With that said....
"screw you guys, I'm going home" Couldn't resist the Cartman line.

[kessinger]

Let me clear up my meaning. The 120 day letter is useful without a doubt, i don't mean to downplay it usefulness.

I am refering more to the actual fight of the work the 120 day letter is more about when they can change things. It doesn't help you in actualy fighting the work. If someone just takes the work and runs their ass off nothing on the 120 day letter would help them. It's still up to the individual to fight, 120 letter or no 120 letter. The 120 letter fiasco was something that happened well before we got in and is something we continualy try to fix.

You don't always have to use H@S to strike them over job standards. Job standards itself is a strikeable issue.

And thx Jeff for agreeing with most of it lol.

[ktp399]

You have to look who is in charge of cutting jobs. On chassis they have the 2 best mgmt. people doing the cuts as far as being aggressive.

[Calvin@KTP]

I think alot of us do mistakenly think that the union can just go upstairs with the company and say "you aren't adding that work " and they just back down. It doesn't work that way.

Last year they were adding work to me and my partner's job and and from day one we knew it wasn't going to work out ergonomically. We immediately called our committeeman and let him know.

He was not able to just snap his fingers and make it go away. We went through the proper channels. There is a process.

They left the work on the job but we just couldn't keep the line running while this work was on the job. I was taken up front, yelled at, had bosses hiding and watching me from a distance. Even had one of the big bosses come out and tell us in no uncertain terms that we would be doing that work on that job and that was the end of it. However, we never could do the work in our area.

In the end, after about 2 weeks of all that BS. We were right and the work was moved.

Bottom line is, if they bring work out to your job and you know it doesn't belong there...don't do it!

Work standards are fought on the floor, one job at a time. Not up in the office.

[fuckugettelfinger]

We have the same basic problem at KCAP. Very few people are willing to stand together and fight off the work load. Almost no one checks with the operator on the other shift when the company says "Ohhh day shift is doing the job 100%" or visa versa. To make things even worse the company cuts deals with some of these assholes. They will agree to move them to a better job or clean off their attendance record in exchange for willingly taking on added work. It is an absolute mess.

[Jr]

The problem with the 120 day letter is, that they do it for the Model year launch than again for the half year launch (hence their 2010.5) even though they may only change 3 or 4 parts they still call it a model change. They do this at lap and Ktp, With a 120 day letter and the two model years ( 2010 and 2010.5) you only have 6 months of a year thay cant change the jobs. THERE Should Be NO job changes Unless it affects the job with the part change on the half year jobs (2010.5) and Both Unions, Lap and Ktp should stand up and push this.

[richatktp1]

About 8 months ago there was a Mat Handler in the bodyshop,dayshift that went to MGMT and told them he could do his job and another guys job too.(tug jobs). MGMT starting looking at both jobs and agreed with him. The other guy had more seniority and got to do both jobs. The Idiot screwed himself out of a good job. Is this what we have become? People need to wake up and realize that it is US (UAW) against THE COMPANY.

[richatktp1]

Kess is right, I fought extra work on a job years ago at KTP. I was the only one (3 crews) with the backbone to fight. I was told "Do what you can" by the union. I was throw out by Tony Thomas (bodyshop) and was payed for the day. There was a time study done and the work went away. I walk proud knowing that I stood for something and my union was there for me.

[richatktp1]

We have the same basic problem at KCAP. Very few people are willing to stand together and fight off the work load. Almost no one checks with the operator on the other shift when the company says "Ohhh day shift is doing the job 100%" or visa versa. To make things even worse the company cuts deals with some of these assholes. They will agree to move them to a better job or clean off their attendance record in exchange for willingly taking on added work. It is an absolute mess.

You can tell if MGMT is lying...........their lips are moving!!!!

[buckeyeinky]

some have nuts, some dont. the ones who dont cry how bad the union is. I have fought work everytime its added to me , its the way of the world in here. as a matter of fact the last time i fought added work my committeeman did even know it was happening...lol

[JoePieper]

I had to fight work on a job several years ago. They were buying off the day shift guy to run his ass off. But noone on my team could hold it including the TL. Well the superintendant came down and told me "if you turn that line off one more time you are getting disciplined." I told him to get the paperwork ready and I would see him after lunch. I don't take threats very well. Needless to say the extra work was taken away. You have to stand up.

[richatktp1]

Buckeyeinky,JoePieper, Thanks for standing up for what it right. The big bad company does not always win. Sometimes the little guy and the union win. We are much easier to conquer if we do not stand TOGETHER.

[mctrout]

I have to chuckle about the comments about fighting work. I have been with Ford since 1998, I have fought maybe 3 jobs and only won 1 and that was back in 1999. I have worked in trim the whole time. The other 2 times I have fought work , I was written up and had union time study people come out and look at the job. Both times I was told they were good jobs! What are you suppose to do then? I think most people would agree that we all our are getting older and the lines are going faster. Does the union have a plan to address the problem?

[rockyt]

Hey mctrout why don't we get the union reps and the union time study guys to do the jobs that they say are good. I bet they wouldn't last 10 minutes, let alone 10 hours!

[ktpnightshift4life]

the company owns the union time study rep. According to him, every job is a good job. In my 11 years at KTP I've seen 3 jobs where work was added and then had to be removed and one of those was because of a potential problem with a Delta item.